So, nothing good ever comes of SCP idea conjured up while walking around the office, but this one is sticking in my head. Everyone (well, most people at least) knows that caffeine improves blood flow, creating the illusion of banishing fatigue (in actuality, blind studies have shown that a fatigued individual who has partaken of caffeine still suffers from the effects of fatigue, but thinks that their reaction time is back to normal). What if there were a coffee mug which caused caffeine to actually reduce fatigue and/or remove the need for sleep? At first, it seemed like the kind of thing that would write up as an anomalous object, but then it struck me that it might be more interesting if it did so by drawing on vital energy from the drinker, something the Foundation is initially unaware of until someone crunches the data and notices that the test subjects (possibly researchers if this had gotten categorized as "Safe" and allowed for general use as other skips are) were dying earlier than was predicted by actuarial tables. The effect is relatively slight, effectively removing from life expectancy the number of hours of sleep avoided, but it adds up.

I'm sure this has been done before — it seems too obvious an idea — but I figured it was worth appealing to the hive mind over.

In addition to what they said up there ^, I think the life expectancy of Foundation staff is not so prone to statistical analysis. 682 breaches by themselves would have to lower the average life span of the organization.

I can see a seed of promise with caffeine that works the way folks think it does, but it might be better as a chemical additive than a magic mug. A product of Prometheus Labs perhaps. Rather than using up some mystical life force, there could be consequences stemming directly from working as advertised. Off the top of my head, extreme blood pressure (insanely high blood pressure could cause spontaneous capilary rupture, random blood squirting for no visible reason is pretty squick-tastic), hummingbird heartbeat (there is a medical term for a beat so fast it is no longer effective, but I don't know it), and the screwy neurochemical effects that come from sleep deprivation.

Noted. I had not realized that the policy had shifted from "Use it if it's useful" (early Foundation) to "For all things good and holy, SCPs MAY NOT BE USED BY RESEARCHERS!" :)

To me, the idea is less the "it makes you drink from it" kind of curse, and more a matter of "how many people, if given the chance to entirely cut out sleep, would choose to do so?" The negative side effect was in part because it seemed far too useful, and because I felt like there'd have to be some sort of drawback for maintaining such continuous consciousness. I suppose the easiest way to handle that would be to treat it like regular caffeine in that it really is physically addictive, and overuse can be physically and psychologically harmful (I've gone through caffeine withdrawal before and I've gone through mild caffeine poisoning from over-consumption).

I liked the idea of the mug because it raised the possibility that there were more out there, whether because they were mass-produced a la The Factory or because someone was churning them out as a handicraft.

I'm afraid that the thought process "it's too (insert adjective), I'll add a drawback/curse/ironic twist" is an almost surefire path to downvotes and deletion. It makes for a discontinuity in the narrative, the reader can usually point to the exact sentence where you switched gears, such choppiness does not make for enjoyable reading.

But don't let it get you down, it's an incredibly common stumbling point. I think everyone on the site has wiped out on that speed bump at least once. I think you might be able to re-tool this idea and come up with something really neat. There's nothing like extrapolating from real world, personal experience to really give an article that extra kick.